Electronic-photonic integrated quantum simulator platform

Project Information

EPIQUS

Grant agreement ID: 899368

DOI

10.3030/899368

Project closed

EC signature date 26 May 2020

Start date 1 October 2020

End date 30 September 2024

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Future and Emerging Technologies (FET)

Total cost

€ 3 263 791,00

EU contribution

€ 2 911 291,00

Coordinated by

FONDAZIONE BRUNO KESSLER
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - EPIQUS (Electronic-photonic integrated quantum simulator platform)

Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The simulation of quantum mechanical systems using conventional computers, requires resources, which grow exponentially with the system size. Quantum Simulators (QS) are devices that operate according to the laws of quantum mechanics and are capabile to simulate a broad range of quantum phenomena that relegate beyond the classical computer capabilities. Importantly, QSs, which can outperform best supercomputers, promise to deliver a new paradigm for applications in science and engineering without the daunting resource overhead required for universal quantum computation.

The calculation of a given Hamiltonian spectrum is a problem with wide applications, and can be of huge societal benefit: as exaples, they can be used to simulate unexplored materials with new properties or chemical reactions to foresee efficient pharmaceutical solutions as well as to predict financial market trends.
The project EPIQUS represents an ambitious and concrete step towards transformative advances in quantum science, industry and society. In fact, the success of EPIQUS is expected to fill up the existing gap between the largely advanced fundamental knowledge of Quantum Science and technologically uncertain industrial sector. This project has the ambition to set up a smart scalable technological solution which points to minimize the risk of fragmentation and replication of efforts towards the quest for a breakthrough technology in Europe.

The radical vision of EPIQUS is to set a cornerstone for the future of quantum science and information technologies with a clear objective to develop a chip-scale quantum photonic-electronic integrated platform, fully interfaced to a classical computer. This reconfigurable photonic-qubit device will be a testbed for a quantum simulator to address both Artificial Intelligence (Quantum Machine Learning) and Physics (Heisenberg-Spin Systems) tasks. All the necessary functionalities – scalable near-infrared photon pair sources, reconfigurable quantum interference circuits and arrays of single photon detectors – will be integrated within the same portable chip. The realization of such a technological platform will boost EU’s industrial ecosystem of the quantum information technologies to advance the long-term economic, scientific and social benefits.

At the end of the project, the Consortium reached successfully five out of seven main Objectives. Two Objectives were partially reached: 1) The scalable integrated photon-pair source, although demonstrated, suffers from the co-presence of unpredicted and concurring physical processes at NIR wavelegths, which prevent the realization of high-efficiency sources based on nonlinear photon generation processes. 2) The final quantum simulation experiment on EPIQUS' fully Integrated software-hardware System are ongoing due a delay in fabrication of Q-PIC/SPAD chips, caused by an unforeseen processing issue (later corrected).

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

RP1
During the first year of the project EPIQUS, research was carried out along several lines, which are necessary to prepare the various developments for merging into a unique chip-scale device and guarantee the full functionality of EPIQUS’ QS device. In particular, the work in dedicated work packages have brought advances in:
• setting a number of Quantum Problems and exploring their feasibility in quantum-optical experiments, as well as advanced quantum algorithms to aid the digital handling of hardware devices,
• investigation of the diverse chip-scale components, such as the Single-Photon Sources and reconfigurable photonic circuits,
• development of an efficient approach to on-chip readout of optical signals through appropriately designed photon-detectors,
• development of advanced electronic circuitries capable to handle the large number of controls of the QS chip,
• performing quantum simulations of some target molecules using quantum optical experiments.
The main results of the 1st year represent important advancements on both scientific and technological aspects of the project EPIQUS.

RP2
Continuous, partially independent developments of scientific WPs were put together in order to converge towards the realization of the first demonstrator QS device including the software and the hardware levels.

RP3 (last)
Towards the scientific objectives of the project, the EPIQUS Consortium has achieved several important results, which in line with the Annex 1 to GA, allowed to put together different scientific and technological advancements in order to realize a compact Quantum Simulator system. In short, the quantum photonic architectures from WP2 have been developed and transferred to integrated versions (Q-PICs) in WP3 and realized by monolithically integrating the Q-PICs with SPAD devices in WP4. Towards the integration of the whole system, comprising in Q-PICs, electronic control ASICs chips, PCB boards and software control via quantum algorithms from WP2, an intense activity within the WP5 produced the first Integrated System, allowing to turn on the module in WP6 and perform the full system control.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Most of the advancements during the 1st and 2nd years of the project are indicating to a progress beyond the state-of-the-art.
In particular,
1. EPIQUS partners have intensively developed theoretical methods for solving specific quantum problems in a novel approach which is faster and more efficient.
2. In EPIQUS, a quantum compiler has been developed which allows the end user to potentially run Quantum Simulations from a PC and collect experimental data from the hardware.
3. The first demonstrator device of EPIQUS, aiming at direct coupling of optical signals to chip-integrated detectors, has shown excellent results.
4. The first-time measurements of single photons through a PIC to SPAD monolithically coupled device with very low Dark Count Rates show and proof the original idea of EPIQUS that quantum photonic architectures and the single-photon detection can be successfully merged on a single Silicon chip to operate at room-temperature.
5. The development of new strategies of “reading” optical signals at single-photon level are presenting novel technological solutions which go beyond the state-of the-art. Other than for QSs, they can be successfully employed in many other applications, where on-chip electrical readout of optical signals is necessary.

During the project all the diverse scientific and technological advancements were merged into a unique hardware-software system which is the first fully-functional prototype device of EPIQUS, capable to perform reliable Quantum Simulations on a compact chip.

During the 4 years of project, the EPIQUS Consortium trained a new class of scientists/engineers in the field of quantum science, technology and engineering.
Several young researchers of EPIQUS moved to industry or continued their carriers at Universities.
Several International Schools and Workshops have been organized to form hundreds of young quantum-researchers, impacting on forming a generation of scientists to face the challenges posed by the new Q-revolution in Europe

The Q-PIC with integrated SPAD

The integrated photonic Quantum Circuitry

The Integrated Hardware System of EPIQUS